I’ll preface this by saying I truly wanted to love Dark Woods, Deep Water by Jelena Dunato. My family is Slovakian and rarely do I get to read fantasy featuring Slavic folklore—let alone the goddess Morana, so you can imagine how disappointed I was to find out how poorly structured the story was. The story is so focused on establishing each of the main characters’ backstories that it bogs down the pacing and it takes half of the book to even get to the castle mentioned in the blurb. Then the second half proceeds to go at breakneck speed without taking the time to build up suspense and dread. This felt like such a missed opportunity to me! Maybe it’s because I’m so used to reading gothic fiction, but, for me, the story would have been more compelling if we had reached the castle within the first third before gradually learning more about the characters and the castle’s true sinister nature. On top of that, the worldbuilding felt thread-bare to me—especially for a fantasy set ...